There is panic in Pittsburgh, confusion in San Jose, alarm in Vancouver, and a need in Ottawa, Toronto, Washington, Winnipeg and Carolina to make major changes to hockey rosters that aren’t deemed good enough.

And that’s not even mentioning the apparent difficulties in Nashville, Florida, both Alberta teams and the Islanders.

Three teams in the NHL don’t have general managers. Assuming Dan Bylsma is fired in Pittsburgh, five teams don’t have coaches. And maybe there’s six weeks for anyone of the disappointed to get this right.

In the midst of the conference finals, that’s what makes off-ice business almost as fascinating as on-ice from now until draft day. With a free agent class offering little in help, a never seen before swap meet could take place over the next month and a half. And it’s not garage sale items for sale.

Names such as Jason Spezza, Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau, Eric Staal, Dion Phaneuf, Evander Kane could be in play and who knows what happens in places where there are no general managers yet in place?

Will Evgeni Malkin be made available? Will Kris Letang?

General managers will tell you they’ve never seen a time quite like this one, so much pressure, so much desperation.

THIS AND THAT

Sidney Crosby is no longer the face of the NHL. The new face is an old face: Darryl Sutter ... One more Crosby item, unless there’s more: Bobby Hull, Guy Lafleur, Mike Bossy, Bryan Trottier, Mario Lemieux, Wayne Gretzky, to name a few, were all targeted by opponents and game-planned for at playoff time. And all of them managed to score when it mattered ... Truth in numbers, sort of: At the Olympic break, the Canadiens had 70 points, the Maple Leafs had 70 points ... More truth in numbers: the Rangers scored more goals on Carey Price in the first two periods Saturday afternoon than the world did at the Olympics ... By late this week, Jose Bautista will have played more games for the Blue Jays than Roberto Alomar’s 703. His name will be on the stadium wall after he retires ... Is it possible that Drew Hutchison’s brilliant pitching performance in a head-to-head matchup with Yu Darvish on Friday night is a career-changer? It sometimes takes just one moment to convince a kid he’s big-time ... You can’t keep Dan Bylsma in Pittsburgh, can you? After three straight playoff collapses? Teams don’t do that, do they? Really?

HEAR AND THERE

Loved the way Hockey Night brought Jacques Plante, Boom Boom Geoffrion and Gump Worsley back to life Saturday afternoon as Montreal legends who played for the New York Rangers. What a nice tie in ... Remember Tim Leiweke’s post season tirade about major changes coming to the Maple Leafs. Now forget it. Brendan Shanahan makes no similar promises, doesn’t speak in absolutes, and is only talking about long-term success ... For those counting, that’s 54 shots, one playoff goal for Rick Nash. And the goal was the seventh goal in a 7-2 win by the Rangers ...Dominic Moore at $1 million a year may be the best bargain in hockey, year after year. There are all kinds of NHL players making triple his money who don’t contribute when it matters the way this guy does ... Never had a reason to dislike the Arizona Diamondbacks before. Now it’s easy. Tony LaRussa is in charge ... If you score first in the last 28 NHL playoffs games, you win 27 times ... Other than the obvious reasons, why the NHL playoffs trump the NBA playoffs: All four first place teams in the NHL are out. All the regulars are alive in the NBA ... The Leafs are listening about Dion Phaneuf more than they’re actually shopping the polarizing captain ... With five goals in his last 41 playoff games and too many foolish penalties, you can bet the Bruins will be trying to move Brad Marchand.

SCENE AND HEARD

There are only two kinds of coaches in the NBA playoffs: Those who have been fined $25,000 for chirping about the officiating and those who haven’t been fined but have complained not so quietly ... The top six OPS hitters in the American League are two Venezuelans, three Dominicans and a Cuban. Seventh is a Korean. Yep, America’s pastime .... We don’t hear enough about Zack Greinke around here but we should: The guy hasn’t given up more than two runs in any of his past 21 starts ... Milan Lucic should be sentenced to watch boxers hug at the end of 12 rounds, watch Novak Djokovic embrace Milos Raonic yesterday, watch Teemu Selanne take the handshake line one last time: If you want respect, show respect ... Imagine how deep the already young, deep Anaheim Ducks would be if they still had young guns Jake Gardiner and Justin Schultz on their defence ... So long Teemu Selanne. And thanks for being Teemu Selanne ... DeMar DeRozan will end up as the second leading per-game scorer in the Eastern Conference in the NBA playoffs. He was third in the East in scoring during the season. The leading scorer: Fellow named LeBron James.

AND ANOTHER THING

Our weekly analytics update, brought to you by the department of statistical incongruence: Sid Crosby, who scored once in the post-season, is the playoff leader in puck possession, according to extraskater.com. That’s nice. Jonathan Toews is 50th in that category while Patrick Kane is 56th. Crosby has one goal in his last 17 playoff games ... The fact Ron Francis hasn’t named Kevin Dineen in Carolina leads some to believe Rangers’ assistant, Ulf Samuelsson, will be the next Hurricanes coach, which would be a mistake ... If you didn’t know the name Bermane Stiverne before, you should at least know it now. The Haiti-born Canadian citizen became the third Canadian to win the WBC heavyweight champion last Saturday night. Same title once owned by Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Larry Holmes and George Foreman ... Ever wonder what happens to Olympians after they retire? Well, if you’re figure skater, Joannie Rochette, you spent Saturday making an appearance celebrating the 50th anniversary of Nutella. And how did you celebrate the anniversary? ... Rob Manfred, who has been playing Adam Silver to Bud Selig for years, is expected like Silver was in the NBA, to be the next commissioner of baseball ... Happy birthday to Reggie Jackson (68), Brooks Robinson (77), Jari Kurri (54), Marty McSorley (51), Jimmy Snuka (71), Vicky Sunohara (44) and Vince Young (31) ... And hey, whatever became of Bruce Driver?

LEAFS 2007 DRAFT A BIG BUST

Of all the ways John Ferguson Jr. set the Maple Leafs back, few were worse than what happened in June of 2007.

(OK, the trade of Tuukka Rask for Andrew Raycroft one year earlier was worse, but please, play along...)

Seven years ago, the Montreal Canadiens had three picks in the first two rounds of the entry draft and in reverse order ended up selecting P.K. Subban, Max Pacioretty and Ryan McDonagh, three franchise-changing players. Why the Habs dealt McDonagh in a large deal for Scott Gomez, well, that remains something of a mystery. But we move on.

Ferguson acquired goalie Vesa Toskala and wayward winger Mark Bell from San Jose, giving up the Leafs first- and second-round picks to do so. San Jose used the Leafs pick to move up and draft Logan Couture. St. Louis, using the original Leafs pick from San Jose, drafted Lars Eller, who now plays for Montreal.

Never mind that Toskala bombed in Toronto and Bell was a waste of space, Couture has gone on to be a staple centre with the Sharks, Subban and Pacioretty are stars in Montreal and Eller is an excellent complimentary player. McDonagh is the Rangers best defenceman — with four points Saturday — and like Subban, one of the 10 best in hockey.

Having traded away his first two choices that year, Ferguson didn’t pick until Round 3 of the draft that brought Patrick Kane to the Blackhawks.

His selection, Dale Mitchell, never played an NHL game. Mitchell split this past season between the San Francisco Bulls and the South Carolina Stingrays of the ECHL.

THIS HAS TO BE JAYS’ YEAR

This is the year. It has to be. The year of opportunity the Blue Jays have been waiting for.

The year the American League East is floundering, dropping like a bad stock, available to anyone who can find their way. And this is the year to cash in on what used to be a mountain of a division.

Over the past 10 years, you had to win between 95 and 103 games to finish first in the AL East. To finish second in every year but one, you had to win between 91 and 98 games. Only once a second place team won 87 and that just happened to the Jays in 2006, where they still finished 10 games out.

Now enter this season: The Rays have not enough healthy pitching. The Yankees are old and hurt. The Red Sox are still in World Series celebration mode. The Jays, having been average, with spotty starting pitching, too many injuries, a bullpen in freefall, have 22 wins. As of Saturday afternoon, they’re tied for the most wins in the division.

No one in the AL East is going to win 95 games this year. It’s possible no one will win 90. This is the year of opportunity in the East. Time to get it done.

SHERO AMONG THE BEST

I tried to make a list of general managers I’d rather have than Ray Shero.

It wasn’t a very long list.

It started, as it always does, with Ken Holland in Detroit. I had Lou Lamoriello on there, even if his record lately hasn’t been great. I admire his longevity, his consistency and his record of success.

The new kids on the block would be Dean Lombardi and Peter Chiarelli, both owners of championship rings, even though neither of them would consider themselves new.

And then who? Still not sure where to place Stan Bowman in Chicago, because he inherited Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith and a whole lot more.

Which brings us back to Shero, an honest, hard-working, man of sense, who grew up in the game, and had more faith in Dan Bylsma and Marc-Andre Fleury than I did and that wound up costing him his job with the Penguins.

If I owned the Washington Capitals, I would stop my general manager search today and hire Shero, who was quizzically let go by the Pittsburgh Penguins. As Dave Nonis said while searching for a possible replacement for Randy Carlyle: “Who’s better?”